How to Monitor your Docker Containers with ctop

If Docker is your container service of choice, you know how easy it is to create and deploy containers. Chances are you’ve already done so and have numerous containers running on your network. However, do you know how well those containers are performing? If you’re familiar with Linux, you might wish there were an top/htop app geared specifically for containers.

There is.

That’s right, one of the best means of monitoring your containers is an open source tool, found on Github, called ctop. With this app, you can get a quick overview of your containers, their names, IDs, and how much CPU, Memory, and Network Rx/Tx data. Ctop even allows you to filter what you’re viewing, and gives you an expanded view of a selected container. Although it may not offer a massive amount of features, it does the job and does it well. The tool is easy to install, and even easier to use. I’ll demonstrate on a Ubuntu 16.04 platform, but ctop can be installed on nearly any Linux distribution.